andrew b
05-15-2012, 10:34 AM
So this is one of those "lessons learned" posts. At least it came out ok in the end.
Background: My car has OEM lightweight alloy wheels, which are silver with clearcoat over them.
I just recently purchased the equipment I need to safely lift my car for minor/routine maintenance (oil change, etc). Decided that one of the first things I wanted to do was to clean the wheel barrels.
Got the car onto jack stands and safely chocked no problem. Successfully got the front wheels off after researching how to break them free once the lug bolts are removed. So far so good. Took off both wheels, making sure to place them so I could keep track of L/R.
Turned them face-down, and sprayed them with the hose (fronts were already clean). Applied Sonax liberally to both barrels, allowed it to dwell for about 5 minutes, then agitated with a brush and rinsed. That removed probably 75% of the baked-on brake dust.
I noticed that the still-stuck places were softening up, so I repeated this process a couple more times. Finally got them nice and clean.
Turned the wheels over, and was dumbstruck to see the clear in a couple places on both wheels was eaten away. Closer examination showed that the places where this happened were spots where the finish had been restored, probably to fix curb rash (wasn't my restoration). And on one wheel, along about 9" of the edge, the clear had a light pinkish cast to it - I suspect the red sonax dyed the clearcoat.
Too upset to take photos. I tried everything I could think of, using the "least aggressive" principle, i.e. perhaps it will buff out, moving to wetsanding, etc.
Thank goodness I had purchsed 1Z Silver Spray Wheel Paint and Wurth High Gloss Clear Lacquer (http://www.autogeek.net/wurth-1z-combo.html)a while back to fix a minor curb rash spot on a rear wheel. So I sanded the spots down, masked the wheels, and proceeded to paint. The wheel with the pink was easier to completely re-spray than to try and mask to cover the large areas.
After multiple thin coats, I let the wheels sit for a couple hours to dry. Went back outside, and took off the masking materials (by the way - 4x6 index cards inserted around the lip of the rim, inside the tire, work great to mask the whole tire) to check.
Success. The paint is an almost perfect match for the factory original. I re-mounted the wheels (since I needed my car the next day). Yesterday, I pulled the wheels again and did a couple coats of the clear. They look almost perfect.
Whew.
Lessons learned:
- don't let cleaning chemicals sit for too long on surfaces, even if you've used them before with no problems at all (which is the case for me with Sonax - been using it forever, and have never had any problems with it).
- periodically check the unseen areas when cleaning with chemicals
- Be patient if you paint :)
Background: My car has OEM lightweight alloy wheels, which are silver with clearcoat over them.
I just recently purchased the equipment I need to safely lift my car for minor/routine maintenance (oil change, etc). Decided that one of the first things I wanted to do was to clean the wheel barrels.
Got the car onto jack stands and safely chocked no problem. Successfully got the front wheels off after researching how to break them free once the lug bolts are removed. So far so good. Took off both wheels, making sure to place them so I could keep track of L/R.
Turned them face-down, and sprayed them with the hose (fronts were already clean). Applied Sonax liberally to both barrels, allowed it to dwell for about 5 minutes, then agitated with a brush and rinsed. That removed probably 75% of the baked-on brake dust.
I noticed that the still-stuck places were softening up, so I repeated this process a couple more times. Finally got them nice and clean.
Turned the wheels over, and was dumbstruck to see the clear in a couple places on both wheels was eaten away. Closer examination showed that the places where this happened were spots where the finish had been restored, probably to fix curb rash (wasn't my restoration). And on one wheel, along about 9" of the edge, the clear had a light pinkish cast to it - I suspect the red sonax dyed the clearcoat.
Too upset to take photos. I tried everything I could think of, using the "least aggressive" principle, i.e. perhaps it will buff out, moving to wetsanding, etc.
Thank goodness I had purchsed 1Z Silver Spray Wheel Paint and Wurth High Gloss Clear Lacquer (http://www.autogeek.net/wurth-1z-combo.html)a while back to fix a minor curb rash spot on a rear wheel. So I sanded the spots down, masked the wheels, and proceeded to paint. The wheel with the pink was easier to completely re-spray than to try and mask to cover the large areas.
After multiple thin coats, I let the wheels sit for a couple hours to dry. Went back outside, and took off the masking materials (by the way - 4x6 index cards inserted around the lip of the rim, inside the tire, work great to mask the whole tire) to check.
Success. The paint is an almost perfect match for the factory original. I re-mounted the wheels (since I needed my car the next day). Yesterday, I pulled the wheels again and did a couple coats of the clear. They look almost perfect.
Whew.
Lessons learned:
- don't let cleaning chemicals sit for too long on surfaces, even if you've used them before with no problems at all (which is the case for me with Sonax - been using it forever, and have never had any problems with it).
- periodically check the unseen areas when cleaning with chemicals
- Be patient if you paint :)